New York, NY (June 30, 2021) – The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) announced that Public Works Partners, a WBE/DBE/SBE certified planning & consulting firm, has been selected as the program administrator for its new Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) Resident Planning Fund. Public Works Partners will manage the $6 million technical assistance program for NYCHA residents whose developments are being included in the PACT program.
PACT is a critical tool that, through partnerships with private and non-profit development partners, allows NYCHA to not only modernize homes, but also provide enhanced community services and amenities. The goal of the Resident Planning Fund is to ensure that residents can meaningfully plan for the future of their communities with the support of independent, third-party professionals.
As program administrator, Public Works Partners will develop and oversee the fund, working directly with residents to assess their needs and priorities and connect them with qualified organizations and providers. Public Works Partners will design the Fund’s governance structure, ensuring that funds are distributed equitably so that residents from all impacted developments have the opportunity to take advantage of the Fund. The team will also guide the selection process for the pool of support providers.
“This project is the beginning of a meaningful resident-led redesign that will benefit current and future residents. We are excited to bring the voice of NYCHA residents to the forefront in this process and empower them to guide the design of their communities,” said Celeste Frye, co-founder and CEO of Public Works Partners. “Strong, stable neighborhoods support better lives and achieving effective, equitable resident engagement is our top priority.”
Public Works Partners will lead the administration of the fund in partnership with LISC NYC, the Public Policy Lab and the Pratt Center for Community Development.
“We are pleased to announce that we have selected Public Works Partners, LISC NYC, Public Policy Lab and the Pratt Center for Community Development as the Program Administrator for our new Resident Planning Fund program,” said Jonathan Gouveia, Executive Vice-President for Real Estate Development at NYCHA. “This is an important step in ensuring that residents at all of our PACT projects have access to independent, technical assistance to help in planning for the future of their homes and communities. We look forward to working with residents at our PACT projects and the Public Works Partners team to ensure PACT investments are tailored to the needs and goals in each community.”
Responsible for contract management, LISC NYC will manage subcontractor services to ensure the timely and high-quality delivery of technical assistance.
“NYCHA tenants deserve a safe and quality standard of living just like any other New Yorker, which is why we’re proud and excited to support this initiative that encourages residents to engage with, participate in, and lead the transformation of their own units through the PACT program,” said Valerie White, executive director of LISC NYC. “We look forward to working closely with NYCHA, Public Works Partners, the Pratt Center, and the Public Policy Lab to continue to grow and improve the ways that New York City’s nearly 400,000 public housing residents can benefit through programs that help them meaningfully plan for both their future and their community’s future.”
The Public Policy Lab will create a visual identity for the fund and collaborate on a framework through which NYCHA communities can engage and make decisions.
“We have a decade of experience shifting existing, complex public services to improve the lived experience of low-income Americans,” said Chelsea Mauldin, executive director of the Public Policy Lab. “What is exciting about the PACT initiative is that we can collaborate with NYCHA residents to support their decision-making about the future of their communities, designing the services they want from the ground up.”
The Pratt Center will assist in outreach to residents, assessing tenants’ needs and ensuring that each community gets the best possible support during renovations.
“NYCHA’s creation of a Resident Planning Fund for services that support their tenants’ engagement in the review and negotiations for the renovation of NYCHA’s buildings demonstrates NYCHA’s commitment to empowering tenants and recognizes that each development is a community, with its own concerns and priorities” said Adam Friedman, director of the Pratt Center. “If successful, this initiative can establish a new model for supporting residents in other public projects throughout the city.”
The community engagement process for NYCHA’s Residential Planning Fund is expected to begin later this summer. For more information on the PACT program, visit http://on.nyc.gov/nycha-pact.
Public Works Partners is located at 99 Madison Avenue, Suite 403, New York, NY 10016. They can be reached at 347.619.2892 or by visiting www.publicworkspartners.com. For the latest news and updates, follow @PublicWorksIQ on Twitter and @public-works-partners on LinkedIn.
A PDF of this announcement can be found here.
About Public Works Partners
Public Works Partners believes in strategy for good. The WBE/DBE/SBE certified planning & consulting firm, working closely with a network of community-based organizations at the neighborhood, city and state level, captures credible input organically, analyzing and synthesizing findings into actionable data that leads to increased impact. Using a mixed-methods approach, Public Works Partners connects with community members where they are to ensure that audiences too often marginalized are heard. The firm’s research and analysis can inform future programs, facilitate strategic planning processes, build stronger teams and streamline organizational operations for greater success. For more information, visit www.publicworkspartners.com.
About LISC NYC
LISC NYC is the flagship New York City office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). LISC NYC supports local partners whose services and programs aim to create a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable New York City. Since 1980, LISC NYC has invested over $3.1 billion and leveraged an additional $7.6 billion in support of low-income communities. LISC NYC’s investment strategy is guided by a belief that the time has come to forge a future for New York City that eradicates the racial wealth gap for good, protects affordable housing, and builds pathways of meaningful economic opportunity for all New Yorkers. For more information, visit www.lisc.org/nyc.
About the Public Policy Lab
The Public Policy Lab is a nonprofit innovation lab for government. Our mission is to create more satisfying and effective public policy and programs with and for the Americans they affect most. To have impact at scale, we partner with government agencies, philanthropies, and NGOs. Together with our partners and the communities they serve, we examine policy goals and public services through the experience of their users. We apply best practices from ethnographic research, human-centered design, rapid prototyping, and behavioral science to improve the lived experience of low-income people here in New York and across the country. For more information, visit www.publicpolicylab.org.
About the Pratt Center for Community Development
For almost 60 years, the Pratt Center for Community Development, a research center at Pratt Institute, has provided technical assistance in low- and moderate-income communities and communities of color to help build a more just, equitable and sustainable city. Pratt Center’s services in land use planning, economic development, environmental resiliency, research and advocacy have helped build thousands of units of affordable housing, revitalize neighborhoods shopping streets, retrofit small homes, create new parks and improve public transit. For more information, visit www.prattcenter.net.
Press Contact:
Kelly Lee
Co-Communications
914-666-0066
klee@cocommunications.com
Public Works Partners is a WBE/DBE-certified urban planning and consulting firm. Our expertise lies in creating innovative, equitable, and sustainable solutions to complex problems.